A Convergence of Thieves
by Lisa Telramor
Summary: Daisuke meets Kaitou Kid a second time and is even less sure of what to think than the first. Follows Snitched Spark.


_AN: A kind of sort of continuation of Snitched Spark_

o*O*o

Daisuke's pencil was a droning scritch-scratch against his homework paper. The end was finally in sight but he wanted to do pretty much anything but keep working. Even Mom's training looked tempting at the moment. Dodging lasers and pit traps was infinitely better than doing yet another math problem. Hand feeling like a lead weight, he moved to the next problem.

"Daisuke!" Mom's voice called from downstairs. "You have a friend at the door!"

Daisuke dropped the pencil so fast Dark was laughing at him in the back of his mind. _Shush,_ he thought. _You were just as bored as I was._

 _"Yeah, but it's not my homework."_ There was a sensation like Dark was sitting up and stretching, attention focusing back on the world. " _So is it Saehara?"_

 _Dunno, Mom didn't say who it was._ Daisuke took the stairs two at a time, rushing past his mom at the foot of the stairs. She had her interested-and-planning-to-eavesdrop expression on, and Daisuke knew that it couldn't be Saehara at the door. Probably not Riku either since he was pretty sure Riku didn't even know where he lived. Satoshi? But no, Mom would have looked annoyed...

Daisuke skidded to a stop in the entryway, thankfully trap free at the moment, and opened the door. A stranger was on the other side. He was a high school student with an unfamiliar uniform, dark brown hair that looked like it had been carefully styled except for a cowlick in the back, and he had blue eyes that looked vaguely familiar.

"Hey, Niwa-san!" the stranger said in a cheerful voice that Daisuke's instincts instantly pinged as fake. "I was in the area and thought I'd drop by!"

"Do I know you?"

The stranger put a hand on his chest looking mock-injured. "Ouch. To think that I'm that forgettable."

There was something about the tone of voice and the theatric body language...

" _Oh hell no,_ " Dark said. _"That's—_ "

"Kaitou Kid!" Daisuke blurted in time with Dark's mental voice.

"Oh good, you do remember me!" Kid grinned, and that at least was familiar. Most people didn't smile that widely.

"How did you find my home?!"

"You have a really recognizable face." Kid's grin became a bit fixed. "I don't suppose you could do me a favor?"

"What, besides keeping an eye out for that gem of yours?"

"Yes." Kid shifted and Daisuke's eyes flicked down him for the first time as his stance became...off. He'd been relaxed and casual when Daisuke opened the door but he was putting more weight on one side than the other now and one arm held at an angle that didn't look as relaxed as he was trying to be. Daisuke looked at Kid's side. It was hard to tell with the black uniform, but there might have been the start of a wet patch there. "You see," Kid said, "I wouldn't ask if I had anyone else to turn to. I'm a bit far from home."

"Were you shot?!" Daisuke squeaked.

"Ah, no. Slightly stabbed actually."

"Oh my god!"

"It isn't that bad. It missed anything vital. I just am having trouble getting it to stop bleeding..."

"Mom!" Daisuke called.

 _"Well, didn't see that coming,"_ Dark said. _"Guess I'll put off punching him until he's no longer bleeding."_

 _Not the time,_ Daisuke thought. "Get in here," he said to Kid, tugging him indoors. "The person who stabbed you isn't nearby right?"

"Oh, no, I left them trussed up for the police. I took a page out of Spiderman's book. Can't exactly stick around for evidence though." Kid didn't protest the manhandling; if anything he moved willingly wherever Daisuke pushed him.

Mom appeared with Towa behind her, badly hiding her interest behind a polite smile. "Mom, Kaitou Kid. Kid, my mom," Daisuke said. "Towa, go get the first aid kit—the big one—he's got a stab wound."

"Oh my." Mom's brows went up.

"A pleasure," Kid said with a charming smile that didn't let on to how much pain he had to be in. He produced a white rose from somewhere on his non-injured side. "I would bow in appreciation of such a lovely lady, but I'm afraid I'd end up swooning at your feet if I tried."

Daisuke was horrified to see his mom actually blush as she accepted the flower. "No, that's fine," she said giggling for a second before looking serious. "Come to the kitchen."

"I have the first aid kit!" Towa screeched, barreling into the kitchen only moments after Kid sat down at one of the kitchen chairs. They all turned and looked at her holding it aloft like a prize.

"Thank you," Kid said with his charming smile. It affected Towa about as well as it did Mom.

 _I am extremely concerned about that smile,_ Daisuke said.

" _Mine's better,"_ Dark muttered. _"His is super fake anyway."_

 _No kidding_ , Daisuke thought. There was definitely a wet patch on the uniform now. "Can you take the uniform off?" he asked.

Kid paused. "Yes," he said after a beat. "I got it on, so I can get it off. _Should_ I take it off the way I put it in is the real question." He undid buttons onehanded just a fraction slower than Daisuke could manage, sliding out of the uniform jacket with minimal movement from his torso. A bloodstained button up shirt followed, but the much bloodier undershirt was a different story. "I don't think I should twist to pull it off..."

Mom pulled out a razor blade from the first aid kit. Kid held very still as she cut his shirt off. Daisuke could see his heartbeat fast in his throat though his face was impassive. It had to be hard to trust a stranger to help you.

Air hissed through Daisuke's teeth as he saw the wound. 'Slightly stabbed' turned out to be a cut a little longer than Daisuke's hand ranging from Kid's lower ribs in his left side down to the flesh along his side. It wasn't a neat cut; the knife had clearly skidded off Kid's ribs before sinking a little bit deeper when it met flesh. Kid seemed to be right about it missing anything vital though. It was bleeding sluggishly but there weren't any organs showing through the hole in his side at least. Daisuke's stomach flipped at the thought. "Who tried to kill you?" Daisuke asked. He held bloody t-shirt scraps as Towa handed Mom a bottle of disinfectant. Towa looked like she was going to start panicking and turn into a bird at any moment. Mom had the non-expression she always put on when she didn't want to show how she really felt about something.

Kid sucked in a sharp breath at the first sting of disinfectant but had the control not to flinch away as the wound was cleaned out. "Oh," he said with a deceptively airy tone, "you know. People. There's a lot of people who don't like thieves."

"I've never had anyone try to stab me in the gut," Daisuke said.

"I think he was aiming for my heart actually. Must be pretty unexperienced. Everyone knows you stab up into it, not down through the ribs." Kid could have been talking about something as mundane as how to plant tulip bulbs rather than his own almost murder.

Daisuke stared, horrified.

"I've run into a lot of murders lately," Kid said, like that was an explanation.

"This is going to need stitches," Mom said. "You got lucky though. It missed hitting anything vital."

Kid breathed out slowly. "Luck does seem to turn out in my favor more often than not."

 _"Luck would be not getting stabbed at all,_ " Dark said to Daisuke. _"That guy has as much bad luck as good."_

"So you got stabbed by someone who doesn't like thieves and you came here. Why here? You didn't know if we'd help or not." Daisuke stared at Kid trying to see past his masks.

Kid was a supremely annoying person though and he had all the readability of a smooth stone. "I took a chance," Kid said. He was careful not to look at Mom threading the needle, but he only flinched once at the first press of the needle through skin. He had an alarming pain tolerance. "And I didn't know anyone else in Azumano. Usually I'd go to my assistant, but he's sick at the moment."

"No family to turn to?" Mom asked. She looked up at Kid, one eyebrow raised out of her own mask of an expression. "You're awfully young to be doing this on your own."

Was Kid young? He wasn't old, but Daisuke couldn't tell. The high school uniform he showed up in fit him and his face still had some of the roundness of childhood, but those things could be faked. He could be anywhere from sixteen to twenty-five with a face like that.

"Not around, no," Kid said. He couldn't quite hide a wince as the needle tugged a bit harder, forcing part of the raggedly cut flesh back together. He looked up at the ceiling, changing the subject. "I have to say, your security system is impressive here. The cameras are expertly hidden and I would love to see the extent of those traps in the entryway. Like how do you have a lock mechanism for the pit traps? They're weight based triggers, correct?"

Daisuke and his mother gave Kid identical incredulous looks.

"Weight based," Mom said after a beat. "All traps have mechanisms to turn them off. It has to be a functional house for people who aren't thieves after all." Her hands finished up the last few stitches, tying off the thread neatly.

Kid nodded. "Impressive. My weight based trap skills are still a bit trigger happy."

 _Is...is he bonding with Mom over traps?_ Daisuke wondered.

 _"I think it's working,"_ Dark replied.

And it had to be because Mom's mask was melting into one Daisuke could remember from growing up when she would impassionedly drill techniques into his head. She finished taping gauze over the stitches and actually smiled. "What kind of pressure triggers are you using?"

And Kid smiled back. With a real smile as far as Daisuke could tell. Daisuke took a step back and toward Towa as they dived into a technical discussion. Kid still looked halfway to passing out, but he was so focused and genuinely interested in Mom's words that he had to actually understand everything that she was talking about. Daisuke wasn't really a trap person. He could evade them and think around them, but making them required an instinctive know how for how elements would work together that he just didn't have. Kid didn't seem to have that problem. If anything, his brain worked the same way Mom's did with pulling all the details into a cohesive, functional whole.

 _Why does it feel like a bad thing that they are on the same wavelength?_

 _"Maybe because some of Emiko's traps are deadly and subtle?"_ Dark suggested, though he sounded just as weirded out.

"That sounds like the perfect way to cause chaos," Kid said about some mechanism that relied on the vibrations of footsteps to be set off.

Mom grinned. Kid grinned back. Daisuke felt sorry for the police in advance. They were just doing their jobs.

 _"Oh no,"_ Dark said. _"She likes him. Daisuke, get Kid out of here before Emiko adopts him and we have to deal with him all the time."_

It was too late though. Mom was already offering to show him how to install some of her touchier pressure sensors and a place to stay if he was ever in town.

"Mom!" Daisuke hissed.

"He clearly could use a bit of paternal guidance," Mom hissed back, leaving Towa to help Kid back into a clean shirt. "And look at him." Daisuke looked. There were a lot of scars on Kid's torso alone. Some of them looked like gunshot wounds. Who had helped Kid get patched up then? "If his family isn't willing or able to step up, he might as well have someone to turn to. One assistant isn't much."

Daisuke had Dark and Mom and Dad and Grandpa, Towa and Wiz and sometimes even Satoshi or Saehara or Riku to turn to when he was in over his head. He swallowed. Kid's charisma and confidence and flirtations...were they all masks? And what was under them? Who did Kid turn to when he wasn't sure? "Okay."

Mom smiled and patted Daisuke on the shoulder. Then she was back to Kid, sweeping up his bloody clothes and promising to clean them up for him. "Just stay for dinner," she said, pulling Towa with her to help. "Or spend the night even if you want. There's plenty of room."

"I can only stay for dinner," Kid said, sounding apologetic.

"That's fine! Daisuke, help him with anything he needs until dinner's done." Then Mom was off and Daisuke was stuck standing next to Kid feeling awkward.

Kid let go once she was out of sight, slumping in his chair with a grimace of pain. One hand hovered over his injury for a moment before the pain was smoothed away from his face and his hand tucked back into a casual position at his side. "You're mom's nice," Kid said after a moment. He sounded exhausted.

"She's like that. She's the sort of person who will happily order you around and force feed you if you look a bit too thin." _Even if she didn't like you_ , Daisuke thought, thinking of Satoshi. "What's your mom like?"

Kid laughed once, flat. "Absent? She spends more time traveling than at home."

"Oh."

"I'm not sure what she thinks of me being a thief. Nothing too bad I guess or she wouldn't have had me steal something for her..."

"I kind of have to be a thief. It's the family business."

"Huh." Kid closed his eyes for a moment, all the exhaustion and pain showing in his face for a few seconds before it trickled away. He breathed out a long breath. "Thanks," Kid said, eyes still closed. "For helping."

"How could I not?" Daisuke asked.

Kid flashed him a tired smile that didn't quite meet his eyes. "Most people ask the opposite."

Daisuke came to a decision. "You can rest upstairs for a bit? Dinner won't be for a while." He offered Kid a hand up.

Kid took it, letting Daisuke pull him to his feet. He wasn't flirting or joking or otherwise trying to provoke or distract Daisuke at the moment, and Daisuke supposed he didn't mind Kid if he was being like this. "I really can't stay the night," Kid said as Daisuke led him to his room. "I have a civilian life I have to get back to."

"Stay only as long as you want."

"I owe you one."

As Kid settled onto the spare futon Daisuke kept in his room, Daisuke realized he was just about as bad as his mom when it came to taking in strays.

 _"You're going to stubbornly try to make friends with him aren't you?"_ Dark asked, sounding resigned.

Daisuke didn't deny it. He was kind of curious about how another thief had grown up and what skills he had anyway. It wasn't like there were an abundance of people to bond over having double lives with.

 _"That means I can't punch him doesn't it."_

 _He's injured!_

Dark sighed.

Daisuke left Kid to rest and went to help Mom with dinner. He had a feeling that this would be far from the last time Kid showed up and only time would tell if that was a good thing or not.

o*O*o

Emiko would adopt Kaito in a heartbeat. She got all 'here eat more are you getting what you need' with SATOSHI and she considers him her family's mortal enemy more or less. If she can go into mom mode on someone she dislikes, heck yeah, she's gonna adopt the thief that's still young and mostly doing it on his own. (The world is now doomed. Emiko's trap skills plus Kaito's offbeat creativity equals chaos.)


End file.
